ning labor forces (Fussell and Zenteno 18). Thus as these two young adults entered the U.S. they were likely to meet with competition and low wages, with work primarily in the farming industry.
Statistics for 1920 show that according to census samples, there were 500,429 Mexican-Born immigrants in the U.S., which was 46% of the U.S. population (Gutmann, McCaa, Gutierrez-Montes, and Gratton 3). Migration from Mexico has been more common for men than women, with 152 Mexican-born men found for every 100 Mexican born woman in 1910. By 1920 this ratio declined due to an increase in female immigrants and a return of single male migrants to Mexico. By 1960 gender differences stabilized (Wildsmith, Gutmann, and Gratton 12). Thus, in the 1920s the female migrating to the U.S. faced competition for jobs from larger numbers of male immigrants.
The tendency for this male and female to migrate to the U.S. in 1920 was in keeping with the times. In 1911 and 1920 over 450,000 immigrants from Mexico arrived in the U.S (11.2% of immigrant in-flow). This influx was due to increased U.S. demands for labor due to Chinese workers being excluded in 1882, Japanese workers excluded in 1907, and a shortage of European immigrants during World War I. The federal government exempted the Western Hemisphere from national quota laws in the 1920s (in the name of Pan Americanism) and this led to California and other southwestern states seeking inexpensive labor from Mexico. The Mexican labor force at this time included mostly farm workers (Glick and Van Hook 574).
Industry of Employment/Labor Versus Management
In the 1920's Mexican-Americans constituted up to two-thirds of the work force in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. Mexican communities known as barrios were created and led to small businesses (grocery stores, barber shops). Mexicans lived close to their jobs and it wasn't necessary to know much English. Thus, while farming was available...